entertainment

Mrs. Forrest has always been a compulsive feeder. Before she retired, she was cooking for the Mule Barn truck stop's customers, and is singularly responsible for about three flabby tons of avoirdupois on this nation's truck drivers, and may have been marginally responsible, third-hand, for a cardiac event or two.

The Jones kid, Randy, was out in the Mule Barn parking lot with the hood up on his car. He was staring down into it the way a first-time parachutist would look out the airplane door. You never quite knew for sure what lay ahead.

"Looks like Randy's got problems," said Steve.

"Let's have a look," said Dud.

So coffee was left to get cold and the entire Supreme Court of All Things Mechanical - Steve, Dud, Doc, Herb and Dewey - trooped out to see what was going on.

It was just one of those things. It didn't really mean Marvin Pincus had lost his mind. Consider this yourself for a minute. Marvin had opened the mail that morning and in it was the Fenwick glass fly rod he'd ordered. Oh, it was used, of course. But there's a feel to a Fenwick that only a man dedicated to a life of using dry flies can appreciate.

Doc smiled and felt really good inside when he heard the familiar bird song.

"Hey there, Wheezer," he said, "happy spring!"

For some reason, this mourning dove with the speech impediment comes around to Doc's back yard every spring, and Doc thinks that's just all right. If ol' Wheez didn't have that distinctive voice, Doc would never know if this bird favored his yard or was just another bird looking for a home. Let's face it, Wheezer looks just like every other dove in town.

Billy's been a busy guy ever since he became the official town dog here. Sally had been the town dog until she passed away on Doc's porch, and then Billy's owner died just two weeks after that, so it was something of a natural progression. Sometimes offices are filled without an election.

The high school wood shop boys built Billy a dog house next to the school crossing, but Billy preferred Aunt Ada's couch in the cold months and a nice dog depression under an oak tree when it's warm.